ANBU Kakashi: Vignettes
by whoeverIamloves
Summary: SPOILER ALERT: Shippuden 345 onward: A look inside Kakashi's mind as he reflects on who or what he has become. Based on moments from the current anime arc. (No pairing intended.) Latest: Inside Kakashi's head in episodes 354-355 ("Shinobi of the Leaf") and a little bit of Kinoe's thoughts as well.
1. Kunai

I just got all caught up on the anime! OMG I'm in awe! I'm loving this ANBU Kakashi arc sooooo much!

Here's a little diddy that just kind of happened.

CAUTION: SPOILERS! This short piece contains spoilers about Rin's death. If you don't know about that, maybe come back once you've seen that part.

This is based on the part in the Shippuden anime episode 351 where Kakashi walks past the group hanging out in the dango shop, and Gai decides to be tricky and sneak up on him. PTSD is not something to play with.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything here. Also, I am not an expert on PTSD, nor have I personally experienced it or been close friends with anyone who has. My heart goes out to those who have or currently are.

* * *

Kunai

* * *

Kakashi clenched the handle of the kunai in his hand. The coarse canvas of the wrap around the cold steel handle bit into his skin, and he squeezed it tighter still.

He'd almost killed Gai today. Almost plunged the tip of this very kunai directly into his trachea. Almost added his most loyal (still-living) friend's blood to Rin's blood already on his hands. It had been a split second from happening. If Gai hadn't spoken up…

He sat on his bed with his legs splayed out in front of him, the same position he'd collapsed into an hour ago upon arriving home. He hadn't even bothered to pull his legs underneath him in his normal cross-legged posture; the only movement he'd made was to retrieve the kunai from his thigh holster so that he could stare at it. He'd searched it for any differences from any other steel weapon he possessed, or had ever seen, that would draw it to Gai's throat so quickly.

He'd found nothing. No difference. The edge was smooth and fine; the tip was honed to a needle's point; the flat, angular sides of the blade glowed with a polished reflection of the fading daylight streaming in his window. The wrap was worn, fraying a bit around its edges, but still secure. It was a standard issue kunai.

Which meant it must be him. Kakashi must be the one with the instinct to slaughter first and ask questions later.

He finally allowed himself to fall backwards so that he was lying on his back on top of his bedspread. His familiar bedspread that he'd come home to every night after training with Obito and Rin; after every single one of Gai's ridiculous "rival" matches; after every "kill or be killed" mission. So far he hadn't ended up dead, which meant he must be pretty good at the killing part.

He raised the weapon to look at it once more, then moved the tip to his own throat. What had he almost done? What had Gai actually experienced at the tip of Kakashi's knife blade today?

He drew the blade slowly, with a hand so steady it terrified him, to hover with the tip a fraction of a centimeter from his own trachea. He didn't have to look to know when it would touch the fabric of his mask, when it would slip through the fabric, when it would touch his own skin. He applied as much pressure to his own throat as he had used on Gai earlier.

It barely stopped short of drawing blood. If he swallowed too hard, he'd pierce his own throat.

He closed his eyes, not moving a muscle. For several minutes, he held the pressure on the kunai, fighting his body's natural urge to swallow.

_Why does he keep trying to be my friend? Why do any of them still try to be my friend?_

How many times had he almost killed Gai before? In training? In a rival match?

_Surely there have been times that something could have gone wrong; horrible accidents are always just one wrong move away when you're training or sparring with big jutsus and high level taijutsu and real weapons. But I've never…I've never grabbed him with the intention of actually killing him before._

_Before today._

Kakashi flung the kunai at his dripping sink and heard it clatter into the basin, having hit the sink wall with the flat of the blade rather than burying the tip in the metal. Had he done that consciously? Obviously he'd meant to do it, because he never threw anything that didn't hit its mark anymore, even with his eyes closed.

The only exception was Chidori, when he still occasionally stalled out because Rin's dying face flashed through his mind. But he hadn't used a weapon on her.

But he hadn't consciously decided to spare the sink from harm. Why couldn't his body have reacted that way with Rin? with Gai? instead of defaulting to the "kill or be killed" instinct?

He let his throwing arm flop down beside his head, then rolled onto his side and curled himself into a ball. He'd have to practice going for the sword more… if he used his katana, instead of these damn kunai, Gai or whoever else attacked him would have an extra fourth of a second to block, or to shout, or to react in whatever way they wanted to before he pinned them. Before he could kill them.

He squeezed his eyes shut and yanked his arm guards off his forearms, then threw them blindly across the room. They slapped the wall and fell to the ground, and then his chest plate joined them with equal force. Once he had shed his body armor, he curled himself back into a ball—tighter this time.

* * *

What do you think? I'm turning over ideas in my head for a couple other little "inside-the-mind" things from this arc of the anime, and I'm up for requests if anyone has any moments they'd like to see explored. I'm also still working on Nature of Interrogation and other one-shot drabbles. Apparently I have no life.

But I love reviews! I love them so much. Please let me know if you liked this. :)


	2. Revelation

**SPOILERS for anime episode 357! **This is kind of a mental overlay of the parts of the most recent episode that really tugged at my imagination.

**Disclaimer**: I own no part of the series; I make no money from writing about it.

No pairing intended.

* * *

**Revelation**

* * *

Gai saw him kill—no, saw him murder— a man in cold blood for the first time today.

Kakashi sighed as he stood before the memorial stone. He would have preferred to spare his friend that sight.

If only Gai hadn't been so worried lately—worried about Kakashi's withdrawn habits, and worried about helping him come out of his shell, even to the point of making it known that he wanted to join ANBU—then maybe he wouldn't have had to put on that little show for his friend. Gai could have remained blissfully, youthfully unaware of the darkness inside him.

But he'd insisted on staying to fight the enemy Black Ops. As a loyal Jounin of Konoha, he'd jumped into action at his friend's side, truly believing he was helping his assigned team and his much-pestered eternal rival. In a last-ditch effort to get Gai away from the scene before he could see too much, he'd retrieved the scroll and returned it to the official mission captain.

"Your mission's complete. Return to the village," he'd told him coldly, hoping he would take it as an order.

But he'd been just a little too slow. When Gai had seen Itachi continuing the mission after all opponents had already been neutralized, Gai had sealed his own fate. That was the moment Kakashi had known he'd have to let his friend see the difference between himself and the ever-youthful Green Beast.

When Gai appealed to Kakashi to end the killing, to rethink the mission…he'd even slipped and called Kakashi by his name when there were still listening ears. Not that those would matter in a few minutes, but the slip had shown how much the brutality of the mission had shaken Gai. When he had tried to convince Kakashi to come back to his senses, Kakashi steeled himself. He locked away whatever sympathy he would normally have for his friend to be dealt with later, in the village, in the safety of an off-duty moment. He raised his voice slightly to Gai for breaking protocol…

…and then he plunged tip of his katana into the throat of the nearest semi-conscious enemy while maintaining eye contact with Gai. He didn't even have to pretend not to flinch at the spray of blood that covered his hand and side.

And he saw his friend realize that there _was_ darkness in him. That he _was_ a murderer, when ordered to be one.

At that, he did have to pretend not to flinch.

* * *

Back at headquarters, Kakashi dismissed Itachi. As he watched the preteen trot off to resume his personal life, he considered the newest member of Team Ro.

Itachi had proven as good as his reputation. He was good at following orders; good at setting aside emotion to do it. He hadn't been worried about the boy's skill in combat, since he wouldn't have made ANBU if that was lacking at all. But these character traits tended to be much harder to judge, so Kakashi was a bit relieved that his newest subordinate was neither a crybaby nor an arrogant hardass.

The kid even had a good sense of when to ask questions. Like the one he'd asked Kakashi right as they needed to attack. He'd left Kakashi no time to skirt an answer about his reputation for killing comrades, and as a result, he'd had to give a more direct answer than he'd given anyone recently about that topic. Itachi had waited to ask until he actually needed to know if his commander was likely to kill him in the heat of battle, and when he did ask, he did it well.

And he'd waited to ask details until after the mission. He was clearly thinking about implications of Kakashi's answer from earlier, and trying to decide if he could trust his new commander and teammates on a long-term basis.

Kakashi could respect that. The boy had definite promise in ANBU—probably more than Kakashi himself.

It bothered Kakashi that he was more disappointed in himself for allowing his friend to see him bloody than he was for actually doing the killing. After all, it was only one more kill after…well, after a long, long list of field executions…and he must not be as callous to it anymore.

He would have to apologize to Gai. Let him see that he still had a human side in addition to the ANBU persona, that neither version of himself was an act.

In the meantime, here he was reporting to Obito. Gai would probably come looking for him sooner or later, unless he had scared him away permanently, and so he was sticking to his routine. If Gai didn't find him by the time it was fully dark, he'd do the searching himself. Besides, right now, he had a lot to discuss with his former teammates—both of them.

* * *

A/N: I know that Gai tells the Hokage he doesn't think Kakashi is suited for ANBU work either; I think he's either in denial or thinks Kakashi was blackmailed into the job or something. The shock on his face at the end of the killing scene speaks volumes for him.


	3. Traitor

Kakashi pushed off from a tree branch, studying the subordinate beside him and a step behind. Kakashi's dog mask was firmly in place, as was the other man's mouse mask.

They weren't the closest of friends, but they'd been assigned to the same team occasionally (as members were occasionally rotated or substituted according to who was available at any given moment), and he wasn't terrible company for an occasional friendly spar or, when Kakashi's non-ANBU peers dragged him to social events and he happened to be there, for a few minutes of chatting.

He'd known the man, named Masami when not wearing his mask, for two years now. He was a skilled operative; highly observant and good at anticipating orders. He was an excellent shot with shiruken, though his preferred weapon was the katana. The two had made a good team for that reason once, on a mission gone bad. His blade had been snapped, and they'd ended up back-to-back. Kakashi had tossed his own katana to him, still being more comfortable with the smaller, more maneuverable kunai he'd used since childhood, and the two had fended off the few remaining enemies and quickly carried out their assignment.

"We're almost there," Kakashi told him, and Masami nodded silently.

The mission Kakashi had briefed him on earlier was an intelligence-gathering mission. There were reports of high-level weapons and other goods being smuggled into fire country from Rain, and Konoha had received a tip about the location of a particular hideout.

_Take Masami with you._ The Hokage had said that, just before leaving the room. _His observation skills would be useful for this kind of mission._

Kakashi had been chosen for this mission because of his tracking abilities. This particular subordinate was led to infer that he'd been chosen because of his keen observation, but there was also another reason which Kakashi knew and he didn't.

_Don't bring him back. _That had been Danzou's order, after the Sandaime was out of hearing range. _He's selling secrets._

The order to execute a comrade never came directly from Hiruzen. For that, Kakashi was grateful to the old man, because it would have forced him to look at himself and Konoha in a much different light. When his dark orders came from the darker side of ANBU, though, he could carry them out knowing that it was indeed in Konoha's best interest, as long as he was actually sure that Hiruzen was involved somehow. That the accused had already been found guilty, judged by the Hokage himself.

Kakashi landed in a small clearing, just a couple of kilometers from the base he was supposed to check out. As soon as his subordinate landed, Kakashi had already spun around and lodged a kunai beneath the man's ribcage, up past the hilt. As a result, the first two fingers of Kakashi's fist were also somewhat inside the man's chest where he held the weapon, and his hand was already being coated in blood pumped directly from the heart he'd just punctured.

The sputter of blood from the man's mouth did nothing to hide the disappointment in his eyes. Kakashi ignored his own disappointment in the man—he'd hoped to see surprise, or regret, or anything more appropriate in his subordinate's eyes at the realization he'd been caught—and set about the tedious but messy task of disposing of the body.

* * *

Inspired by a quote from Shippuden episode 355: "As part of my ANBU missions, I've had to deal with Rogue Ninja and traitors of the Hidden Leaf. So I can't help it if I'm called Friend-Killer Kakashi…"

What do you think?


	4. Orders

This one follows Shippuden episodes 354-355 ("Shinobi of the Leaf" parts I & II) really closely. It's more about the thoughts of each than about the plot, since the plot clearly belongs to Mr. Masashi.

I don't own the plot or the characters here. I just mapped what I perceived to be the thoughts.

* * *

Betrayed.

He'd been betrayed.

Not that he didn't deserve it, in all likelihood, but as he'd watched Kinoe drive his katana into the clone's chest fully believing it was the real Kakashi, the actual real Kakashi's chest had tightened.

It wasn't a bluff. Kinoe meant to kill him—had fully intended to stab him in the back, literally, and when that didn't work, had fully intended to stab him in the chest. Kakashi had even given him the chance to explain himself. With two different questions.

Then, mid-fight, the boy demanded to know why Kakashi had killed his own teammate.

Rin.

He'd called her by name, and Kakashi's blood had boiled. He was accusing Kakashi of betraying Rin, when he had done his best to protect her! Shouting at him that it had been his _mission_ to kill her! And Kinoe was saying it while in the middle of betraying Kakashi himself. Son of a bitch!

"Don't speak about Rin!"

His chidori had been sharper and brighter than ever before, because he was angry. Hurt. Betrayed, and accused of intentionally murdering his best friend.

He had murdered her. But it hadn't been intentional, and he had to make the bastard understand that. For Rin's honor, and for his own stability. It was bad enough that he couldn't protect her.

He could accept his reputation for killing other friends, because those had been traitors. Always traitors, and always with an order.

"So I can't help it if I'm called Friend-Killer Kakashi!"

He had accepted that dark side of himself, finally. And he knew Rin's death was what had pushed him over the edge into that blackness.

"But Rin was…" He sliced off the wood user's spiked barrier as if it had been a mere patch of grass against his rage-fueld chidori. How could he pound the truth into Kinoe's head? How to make him understand? "I didn't want to kill her!"

Then he was straddling the younger teen, digging his right knee into the kunai wound he'd put there a moment ago and leaning with his weight on Kinoe's opposite shoulder, pinning him and forcibly taking Kinoe's life in his hands.

"I couldn't protect my friend," he bit out, lightning blade poised to tear into his friend's heart. "That's why Rin died…from this chidori…"

Kakashi held his position, not yet willing to kill his friend, not yet allowing himself hope he'd gotten through to him.

"Couldn't protect her…?" Kinoe wasn't fighting back anymore. He seemed lost in his own thoughts, if his lax arms were any indication.

Kakashi fought for control of his emotions. He was terrified of himself right now. He fought back his anger at Kinoe for his accusations, his pain at Kinoe's betrayal, his fear that he would have to kill another friend at any moment.

_Traitors. I kill traitors. Only enemies of the Hidden Leaf. _He wasn't yet sure if Kinoe fit that category or not.

After a moment, Kinoe came back to the present. "Couldn't protect her…" he repeated, and Kakashi steeled himself at the sound of his voice. "Are you going to kill me?" Kinoe asked him.

Kakashi fell back on his training, shutting down his rage and his fear.

"Are you a friend of the Hidden Leaf? Or are you a traitor?"

Kakashi knew that Kinoe knew his answer would decide if he lived past the next five seconds.

"I'm not a traitor," he said, and his voice and his body language were the most genuine Kakashi had seen from the wood user.

"Then what are you?" _How do you justify trying to kill me? _

"I am…Kinoe of the Foundation."

The Foundation. Root. Danzou's hands and feet.

"Then Kinoe…renounce your duty to the Foundation." _Here and now, show me if your own life means anything to you._

"I cannot."

It didn't. It meant nothing to him. The bastard didn't care enough about his own life to come out of the shadows, even with Kakashi poised to kill him in the next instant. How could he be expected to value anyone else's life?

"Then I'll take you into custody and turn you over to Lord Hokage."

"Do whatever…you please."

Kakashi breathed out hard, and didn't move for a few more seconds. Kinoe knew he was defeated. He wasn't fighting back. If he was just what he said he was, a mission, maybe it would be better to kill him.

But he hadn't received that order. And…_hadn't_ they been friends? Once?

Kakashi swallowed and let the chakra in his hand dissipate. His duty here was to do exactly what he'd said—turn Kinoe over to the Hokage and let him sort out why Danzou had given the order for Kakashi's execution. And why Kinoe had been so determined to carry out the order.

He turned Kinoe over harder than was necessary, still angry. Angry at Kinoe, angry at Danzou, angry at himself. He drew a kunai and used it to hold Kinoe down by the neck, while he fished out a length of twine to tie the boy's hands behind his back. Once he'd done all he could with one hand, he hauled Kinoe up so that he was kneeling, then stood up himself.

"Stand up," he ordered.

Kinoe obeyed.

"We're leaving."

"What about the mission, Kakashi? Our mission is to search this location."

Was he trying to twist the knife? It wasn't enough to try to kill him, now he was going to pretend it was no big deal?

"It's suspended, because of you," he said with a hard glare.

"Don't let me stop you."

Kakashi's fingers clenched into a fist. He gave no other indication of the knot in his stomach. "You're trying to kill me, so stop joking around." _It's not even close to funny._

Kakashi was authorized to use force when necessary. Authorized to torture at his own discretion. Authorized to kill when he had a valid reason in his own judgement.

"I'm not joking around."

But torturing Kinoe wouldn't get to the bottom of anything. Killing him…wasn't an option.

Kakashi shoved him. "Move!"

As the younger shinobi started to walk, Kakashi stared hard at his back. What _was_ Kinoe?

"I hear Foundation agents are all trained to discard their emotions. Is it the same for you?"

"Shinobi of the Foundation have no names, no past, no future. We have only our missions."

"Well, you failed your mission," Kakashi pointed out bitterly. _Unfortunately for you, I'm still alive._

Then the sound of glass breaking interrupted their talk. _Now I have to watch him AND deal with whatever bullshit Orochimaru was creating down here?_

He ran to investigate, only to hear Kinoe shout. With his hands tied, he couldn't do too much. Kakashi thought about leaving him to the nasty overgrown worms, but his sense of duty prevented it. He was Kakashi's prisoner, and that made Kakashi not only responsible for keeping him under control, but also for his safety.

He really hated this job sometimes.

After the monstrous snake took Kinoe in its mouth and disappeared, Kakashi set his mouth in a grim line under the mask.

That damn snake really was going to have to die either way.

* * *

"Are you all right, Kinoe?" The younger shinobi was just coming around. "Are you all right?"

"I think so…but why?"

"Why what?" Kakashi turned him over, reaching for the ropes on Kinoe's wrists. Kinoe didn't resist.

"Why did you save me?"

He'd considered it, for the briefest moment, but he'd known immediately. He couldn't leave him to die. Even if Kinoe didn't value his own life or anyone else's, Kakashi had once considered the boy a friend. It would be one more layer of blood on his own hands if he didn't at least try to save him.

He couldn't let a friend be killed, not without a trial. Not without an order and a better reason than the friend's own brokenness.

"I couldn't just let you die."

Kakashi didn't like being the one to say the hard things to people. Telling Kinoe to be glad he was alive. Especially when he hadn't seemed to care a few minutes ago.

The hiss of evaporating fluid interrupted whatever he would have said next. He caught the scent of blood, but it was…putrid. Sharper than the scent of normal blood.

"Don't inhale!" he ordered. "It's poisonous! Run!" _Good thing I untied him already...I don't know if I can make it out of here._

Kakashi tried to stand and run after his friend-turned-prisoner-turned-whatever, only to have his lecks lock up and his knees buckle. He was already getting woozy- that must be some strong poison.

The hell if he was going to ask for help, though, from the bastard who'd just betrayed him. Even if his throat hadn't been closing already.

Then he was being hoisted. Kinoe's mission wasn't simply to kill him then…he had another purpose? To keep him…to keep his body safe? It hurt to breathe, but Kakashi's mind raced. Was Kinoe helping him or preserving him? He'd just spared the boy's life once and then turned around and deliberately saved it. Had it been enough to get through to him?

Kinoe set him down on a pile of wood and fallen rocks, leaning against a wall, while Kinoe shut the fumes inside the laboratory.

Kakashi tried to think, tried to hold onto reality. Tried to stay conscious, tried to focus, tried to see what was going on around him, but he felt drunk.

He felt completely wasted, like he'd had about six bottles of sake, all by himself on an empty stomach. His mind was suddenly cloudy, but his body was painfully aware of every sensation. He must have breathed in more of the poison than he realized.

Not good.

He was vaguely aware of a presense beside him, and vaguely aware that he should fight it. Wasn't there something he had needed to fight a minute ago? Someone he didn't trust?

Then he felt the sharp bite of a needle in his thigh. The pain brought an instant of clarity to his mind- he'd been betrayed. That's right. And Kinoe was apparently still trying to kill him.

And succeeding.

Kakashi felt his body relaxing, and in his poison-drunk state, couldn't bring himself to care that he wasn't going to wake up.

* * *

Kinoe watched the tension fall out of Kakashi's body. He counted to three- the time it would take for the sedative to take full effect—and then pressed his ear to his target's chest. He heard a weak heartbeat. Kakashi was still alive then.

Why did he feel so relieved?

Kinoe sat back and looked at the older teen. The visible part of his face was still pinched, like he was still in pain. Kinoe knew his body wasn't feeling anything; the sedative would be ensuring that.

His mind?

His…heart?

Why had Kakashi saved him? Before that, why had Kakashi even spared his life? Kinoe's target was obviously emotionally distressed. He'd shouted, he'd whispered, he'd found the strength to plow straight through one of Kinoe's better attacks as if the wood were only paper.

Kakashi had felt…betrayed.

Kakashi had said a mission wasn't absolute. For him to say such a thing…in Root, it was blasphemy. But Root existed to serve Konoha as a whole, as Kakashi had pointed out during their earlier wanderings through the hideout. And for Kakashi to say such a thing, he must know it from experience. It wasn't the kind of thing you guess, not in ANBU.

What did Kakashi know that Kinoe didn't? What was ANBU, outside of Danzou? What was Konoha, outside of Root?

What was Kinoe, apart from a mission? Kakashi had implied…well, Kakashi had called him a friend.

Operatives had missions. People had friends.

Kinoe was an operative. Kakashi was an operative.

But Kakashi was also a person.

How—_how? —_was it possible for him to be both?

On the mission they'd ended up sharing before—the one with the clan of smoke-changers—Kakashi had shown him what it looked like to bend the rules. Not break them, not abandon one's duty, but bend them just enough to protect a comrade.

Kinoe had learned that he, in turn, could also protect someone if he wanted to.

But Danzou had given an order.

Kinoe stood, looking down at Kakashi's still form. He could easily kill his target now. He was unconscious. He could take the Sharingan for Danzou, break Kakashi's neck and bury him in the rubble he was leaning against.

Kinoe drew a kunai.

He looked at Kakashi's face again. There was still pain in it.

Kinoe made a decision.

* * *

Kakashi woke with a hangover. His head was pounding, and his whole body ached. His throat felt dry and pinched.

The danger he'd sensed as he'd passed out came rushing back to him, and he jerked his eyes open, looking for Kinoe.

Why was he alone? And how long had he been here?

He forced himself to his feet, looking for any traps or attackers poised to spring at him. All he saw was Kinoe's note.

So he had gotten through to him.

And now Kinoe was on his way to do something stupid, like reporting to Danzou after an intentionally failed mission.

_Shit!_ He'd wanted the boy to understand. He'd wanted the boy to abandon his mission. But he hadn't wanted the boy to have to give a report directly to Danzou- that would be the equivalent of suicide.

Kakashi ran as fast as he could to the Hokage tower. His official report wasn't due until tomorrow, but Hiruzen would probably be expecting to see him after the mission, as usual. He knew what he had to do.

He threw off Yugao when she tried to forcibly redirect him to the clinic, and rushed past her into the Hokage's chamber without waiting for permission. She followed him, and her poised kneel was much more graceful this time than his throwing himself on the ground, panting, in what was almost the standard report posture.

He knew the summons the Sandaime ordered Yugao to deliver wouldn't be enough. The darkness of Danzou…the skirting the rules, the utter submission of Root agents to him, the betrayal of ordering Kinoe to kill a friend in cold blood and Kinoe's unquestioning willingness to do so…a piece of paper wasn't going to be enough.

So as soon as he was dismissed from the Hokage's chamber, he intentionally disobeyed a direct order for the first time. He did not go to the clinic, despite the gash in his shoulder that was becoming more and more painful.

He caught up to Yugao instead.

When they arrived at the entrance, the guards reacted as he expected. Danzou was "conveniently" not available to receive the summons.

He ordered Yugao to return and report. The kind of insubordination he was planning wouldn't look good on her record.

When she was gone, Kakashi relaxed. He looked at the two guards, then reached for his own mask.

He would do this as Hatake Kakashi, the friend someone had sacrificed his own life for in the past when Kakashi didn't even consider him a friend. He let his mask clatter to the floor.

He was not ANBU for this. He was without orders. There would be hell to pay.

But he was Kinoe's friend.

The guards didn't understand. Of course they didn't—they had no identity apart from the masks.

They had only masks—they had no real faces.

Kakashi walked forward, pushing the staff aside like he had every right to be there. All he needed to do was get close enough to the eyeholes in the masks.

He silently incapacitated both guards within 5 seconds, and found out what he needed to know in the next 5.

* * *

The escape didn't go well. He hadn't had much of a plan—there hadn't been time. But if now was his time to die, at least he'd do it in the service of a comrade.

He had no qualms now about fighting alongside Kinoe. He could trust the younger agent, because he knew the younger agent had come to value his own life and then had been ready to throw it away rather than kill Kakashi.

Kakashi tried not to let his surprise show when the Hokage himself covered for him.

"On my orders," the Sandaime said.

There should have been hell to pay. He would probably get a lecture later, but he knew this was the Hokage's way of telling him he'd done the right thing.

He held his tongue, waiting for Kinoe's fate to be decided. It was out of his hands now.

So when Hiruzen assigned the wood user to Kakashi's own team, emphasizing that the young man would be Kakashi's responsibility from now on, Kakashi had accepted the "punishment" with gratitude. The Hokage had smiled when he thought Kakashi wasn't looking.

Kakashi smiled to himself as the newbie was escorted through the locker room to be placed in front of him. He hoped the unusual start of their friendship wouldn't give the kid any illusions about who was in charge.

"Tenzou, you're on my team. Team Ro! I'm counting on you."

"Hai, Senpai," he answered with a tentative air of...lightness. Yeah, that's what it was.

The boy had finally emerged into the light.


End file.
